News Arm-Based Laptops Gaining Share Despite PC Market Weakness: Report

[bit_user]

Oh, Lenovo already released their Snapdragon based ARM laptop,

So, the Thinkpad X13s is a perfect example of what I was complaining about, with regard to Qualcomm and its premium pricing. The darn thing launched at a base price of $1800!! Luckily, they seem to have come to their senses, and it's now starting at a much more reasonable $1085. Although, to be honest, I still find that pretty uncompelling for a mere 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, and 13" 1920x1200 IPS display - not to mention integrated graphics. And that version doesn't even feature 5G - not that I want it, but at least you could understand them charging for it. However, to get 5G support, you have to pay another $500!

ThinkPad X13s | 13.3 inch Windows 11 Pro with Snapdragon® laptop

Made from 90% recycled magnesium and PCC plastic, the Lenovo ThinkPad 13s laptop runs Windows 11 Pro with Snapdragon® and features multiday battery life and AI-based security.

www.lenovo.com

I think we desperately need Mediatek in this market! They announced a comparable SoC about 1 year ago - is anyone using it, yet?

it's quite decent, and runs Windows quite well,

And keep in mind its CPU is still using cores a couple generations behind the latest phone SoCs:

• 4 x X1 @ 3.0 GHz
• 4x A78 @ 2.4 GHz

Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/17127/qualcomms-8cx-gen-3-for-notebooks-nuvia-core-in-20222023

The X1 is basically just an A78 on steroids. It's described here:

Arm's New Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 Microarchitectures: An Efficiency and Performance Divergence

www.anandtech.com

The A78 has 6-wide dispatch sitting behind a 4-wide decoder, which the X1 widens up to 8 and 5, respectively. This is still behind Intel, AMD, and Apple. So, if performance on the X13s is good, then wait until they get some Nuvia cores in there! Or Mediatek counters with a CPU featuring ARM's latest.

now I'm on the lookout for anyone running Linux on it, which is what I REALLY care about.

Same here. My current laptop that I've had since 2017 has never booted MS Windows, and it's worked quite well for me.